Happy Halloween!

One of the boys favorite time of year is among u:  Halloween.  This year was the first year that neither one of the older boys wanted masks.  I had to do the whole face painting thing.  It took forever and we were almost late for trick or treating!  Nathan was Gene Simmons from Kiss, Justin was a skull creature, and Owen was a pirate.  They had a lot of fun, and Owen RAN from house to house.  It was great!

A Visit From Grandpa

My Dad was able to visit for the weekend and it was a nice visit.  My dad and Jon went golfing twice, and the rest of the time was just relaxing and catching up.  The boys were happy to see him and played lots of games and tried to find each other's tickle spots.  Hopefully, we will be able to see the rest of the family this Christmas down to Florida.

Another Visit

My mom and Eddie came to visit us again!  Of course, the boys were super-excited again to see them!  They stayed for a week and we mostly stayed put but did venture out to visit Meramac Caverns.  The boys miss them already!

Happy Birthday Jon

From the family that loves you so much :)

Happy 16th Wedding Anniversary!

I love you, Jon.

Beat the Heat

The end of summer celebration the Ft Wood library always has happened today. They give out awards for reading, put the kid's names in a drawing for some bikes, have a lot of fun activities, and of course, have the "dueling firetrucks" outside. We love this library and we visit here weekly. They just revamped the children's section and it looks great.

Here are the older boys with their friends Tyler and Katelyn waiting for their awards:

Getting their certificates:

Guess who won a bike in their age group??

Fire Truck Time!

First Day of School

I'm not going to start expressing my feelings about the first day of school again. Anyone who knows me or has read my past blogs on the first day, knows how much I can't stand it. We had such a great summer this year...mostly because Jon was home for much of it :). Also, instead of the summer cut I usually bestow on the boys, both wanted long hair this year. I actually took them to a hairdresser for the first time ever, just to get it styled. She cut their hair with a razor...and the amount she took off Nathan...well, you could put it on another kid's head and it would cover him! He has the thickest hair ever!

Here they are getting ready to leave:

Arriving at school:

Just Like Old Times

When we lived in Texas, I became really close friends with a gal named Rosezona. We met on Justin's first day of kindergarten, and her son Jayden was in the same class.

Here they are on a field trip (both in blue):

We started talking right after a parent's meeting and we both were upset about the playground situation. (I think it wasn't ready yet or something like that). Anyways, our boys were all really close for the 2 years we were together and so were we. We both left in 2005: she to Indiana and us to Missouri. We vacationed together back in 2006 to Tennessee (I was close to 5 months pregnant then), and we haven't seen each other since! Well, we got the chance to meet up in Branson over the weekend and everyone had such a great time, that we are planning our next get-together very soon!

Playing wii at the hotel:

Swimming:

Getting ready to "Ride the Ducks"

Rosezona and Michael:

Up close and personal at Predator World:The boys were able to feed the sharks and the stingrays:The kiddos:The old kiddos :)

Robotics Camp

When Justin one "Best in Show" in the District Science Fair last spring, one of the awards he received was a scholarship to attend Missouri University of Science and Technology Robotics Camp. This is a 3 day camp held for kids going into 7th through 10th grades and called a pre-college program. Justin was the youngest one. It was suppose to be a residential camp, meaning they spent the night there, but I just didn't feel great about that, him being so young and he would have to share a room with maybe some 10th grader. So every morning, I dropped him off at 8:00 am and every night, Jon would pick him up at 9:30 pm (loooong day). He really enjoyed it and wants to go again, but next year, wants to spend the night. I told him he could. There is also a aerospace camp held at the same university that he is eligible for next summer that is also a sleep-over camp. Of course, he wants to do both!

This is at the parents presentation. Here is Justin and his 2 teammates (notice the age gap). They built this robot. First, they had to program and design what they wanted on a computer, and build and test it (and of course, a 1,000 other things). It had sensors and could locate and pick up a ball.

Justin retrieving his backpack. I liked this picture because I want him to be this excited about college and here he is attending one for a few days (of course, I want this for all my boys :):Back at home with a robotics car and certificate:

Jon's New "Uniform"

After 20 years of wearing an Army uniform to work, it was strange to see Jon in his new work attire! He just finished his first week of his new job (see July 12th's blog to read about it). He is really motivated to prove that he deserves this job. People have told him this week that he beat out two full-bird Colonels in the interview process!

Saint Louis Day 2

On the second day of out St. Louis get-away, we went to the Missouri History Museum and then the Magic House. It was a lot of fun!

Museum:

Magic House: